2023-08-25 14:33:44
“The Grand Palais in Paris was designed as a party center for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. I want to recapture this spirit. Today we need magical places like this to gather, to see wonders, sometimes with free access,” enthused Didier Fusillier. At 64, the man who has presided over the park and the Grande Halle de la Villette since 2015, has just been appointed by the Elysée to head the Réunion des Musées Nationaux et du Grand Palais (RMN-GP), from September 1st.
A public establishment with 800 employees whose flagship, anchored on the banks of the Seine, must complete pharaonic renovation work – 466 million euros – to host the fencing and taekwondo events of the Olympic Games in its large nave. summer 2024. Will it be ready? “Like all construction sites, it’s tense, but yes”wants to believe the new boss.
The partnership with the Center Pompidou? ” It is a chance “
His predecessor, Chris Dercon, had created a surprise by resigning mid-term, in October 2022, to take over the general management of the Cartier Foundation (1). It must be said that the roadmap of the RMN-GP for the years to come promises to be pretty tight. The Grand Palais will indeed host exhibitions from the Center Pompidou from 2025 to 2030, which will in turn be closed for renovation.
“For me, it’s not a constraint but an opportunity, with wonderful programmers and works that will help renew the audiences of the Grand Palais”replies Didier Fusillier.
The fight of his life: access to culture for all
Born in 1959, in the North in Maubeuge, a city which was then a cultural desert, this son of a couple of clerks says that he made access to culture for all, in the line of Antoine Vitez, the “fight to live”. At the age of 23, he created his company there, the Théâtre Six and, at the request of the Ministry of Culture, the Sambre-Hainaut festival, in the middle of the mining basin.
Seven years later, he took over the management of the young municipal theater of Maubeuge, the Manège, soon labeled “national scene” and brought in great directors: Bob Wilson, Tadeusz Kantor, the Quebecer Robert Lepage. At the same time, he launched the festival in the city The Unexpected already with this taste for popular fairytales that will become his trademark.
He multiplies the “follies”
At the same time, this bulimic director of the Maison des arts de Créteil from 1993 to 2015. And convinced Martine Aubry to entrust him with the programming of the festivities of “Lille European Capital of Culture in 2004”, with exhibitions, shows and a Grand Parade in the streets, reactivating the memory of Nordic carnivals.
With her, he invented the concept of “maisons folies”, places of culture and conviviality, open to associations in the neighborhoods. Later, with the complicity of the Minister Françoise Nyssen, he will decline his “micro-follies”, in the form of modular digital museums, in the suburbs and then throughout the territory (there are nearly 400 today), always eager to touch audiences remote from culture.
Parades tomorrow, in front of the Grand Palais?
Tomorrow at the Grand Palais, he dreams of making one “popular place, open to a large public, to families who walk on the Champs-Élysées…”. The large nave will of course continue to be rented for prestigious events, such as the contemporary art fairs Paris +and Paris Photo, the Saut Hermès or the Chanel fashion shows… Except that “In the summer, nothing happens there and we can divide it into three parts to organize exhibitions and shows. Open it to young artists as a place of rehearsal or to show their works”imagines Didier Fusillier, determined to exploit all the gaps in the calendar.
“The state has also bought the surrounding gardens. I would like to create spaces for free artistic expression there, like those we have successfully launched in the Parc de la Villette,” he continues. And on the avenues Eisenhower and Winston Churchill that the town hall of Paris plans to pedestrianize, he is already setting up his dear big parades, like the one he orchestrated during the Nuit blanche 2019 on the rue de Rivoli. “The Grand Palais is as vast as Versailles! Beyond the Beaubourg exhibitions, there will remain a number of galleries to multiply the activities there”, he assures.
Make up for the deficit with renewed activity
This is how he plans to solve the complicated budget equation of this huge ocean liner. In deficit of 7.9 million euros in 2022 due to the closure of the Grand Palais, the public establishment of the RMN-GP has also borrowed 150 million euros over 25 years to finance the site. “To repay this loan and our losses for the years 2022 and 2023, we will have to free up 10 to 15 million euros per year”recognizes Didier Fusillier.
Quite a challenge! “At La Villette, we managed to increase the budget from 40.5 million euros to 47 million today, by developing the activity. But a space as magnificent and prestigious as this transparent, implausible Grand Palais, will arouse a lot of desires »he bets.
The thorny dossier of the RMN photographic agency
There are other thorny issues to manage. Among them, there is the opening in free access of the photographic collection of the RMN which raises the fears of the unions. Didier Fusillier wants to be reassuring: “I will study the file closely, in order to protect the photographic artists. »
Another challenge is the 16 national museums that the RMN manages. “ As soon as I arrive, I will see one site per week to find out their needs.s, provides the new president. All these establishments suffer from not being sufficiently linked to a national and international dynamic. They must be supported in the production of projects, compliance with new social and environmental standards, by creating synergies. » His talent for coaching teams and his good knowledge of the territories should help him.
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